Dawn's Residential Weekend

Two posts in one night! I'll need to lie down in a darkened room after this one! Well, it was another busy weekend as I was one of the tutors at Dawn Bibby's residential weekend. It was a mixture of hard work and lots of fun, so all of us felt pretty shattered afterwards, including the seventy odd ladies who attended - I mean seventy odd as in number not as in "odd" ladies!!! On the Friday I was at the studio helping to prepare kits and let's just say that I don't want to see any more gilding flakes in a hurry! We went to the hotel to prepare and then meet and greet all the ladies and one or two husbands. It was a great start to the weekend as everyone got chance to chat and make friends and I got to meet up with a few people who I only see once or twice a year.

On Saturday it was a full day of workshops - here are the ladies on "my" table looking all fresh and ready to take on anything! It was a very intense day with so many projects for everyone to get through. I was joined by Heather in the afternoon, and she also helped the ladies at my table. She was joining us to demonstrate and host a table on Sunday - something new for Heather, so she did really well...knew she could do it! In the evening we had a lovely dinner and a fun evening, including dancing - here is my lovely friend Paula looking gorgeous and elegant as usual! And here are Dawn, with her lovely sister Rena, Rena's husband Stephen and Amy of course.

On Sunday, after a bad start for some of us....I overslept for the first time I can recall in years (!) myself, my sister Heather, Jo and Paula were demonstrating in the Design studio and in the afternoon we all hosted tables for everyone to come and have a go at various projects and techniques. Here are some of the ladies making Beeswax plaques at my, as usual, very messy table!

And here are some samples that I made using the Beeswax techniques...the blue plaque doesn't show up too well as the Perfect Pearls I smudged on there are reflecting the light back. The orange hanger has a set of chipboard wings that I cut in half and popped under the lady image. These and the ribbon hanger on the blue plaque are all held in place purely with the wax - no other adhesives required!

I had great fun creating the pieces and I'll be demonstrating the techniques at Dawn's studio this Sunday (all day) so if you fancy seeing the samples more closely then do come along. Everyone seemed to really enjoy using the wax as it is just so different and so easy to create great effects with. On this Ikea mirror frame I used scraps from a Victorian calendar along with some Maya Road chipboard flourishes. 'Scuse the fingerprints!

Well, I shall be demonstrating at C J Crafts in Edgely, Stockport on Friday, then teaching a fairy workshop at Dawn's on Saturday - we'll be making cards and a fairy in a jar! Then I'll be in store all day on Sunday too, so another busy weekend ahead.

If you would like to see more pictures from the weekend, then have a look at Heather's blog to see her fabulous beaded dragonflies and at Paula's blog to see the brilliant slide show that she has put together. Amy has also added photos on the Topaz Crafts website. I'll end with a big "hello!" to all the ladies that I met at the weekend and hope that you really enjoyed the whole experience. Lindsay